Paris climate talks: India Inc gets directly involved

Paris climate talks: India Inc gets directly involved

A fortnight ahead of the summit, business chambers sending delegations, buoyed by sector experts, to probe, explain and negotiate, with govt's approval Ahead of the Paris climate change negotiations beginning November 30, Indian chambers of business are sending some senior representatives, and experts, to engage in ‘Track-II’ climate change diplomacy, across developed world capitals.

Supported by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), these representatives, along with climate and energy experts from think tanks in this country, would be travelling to Washington, Brussels, Berlin, London and Tokyo. The Paris meet is expected to result in a new global compact on addressing climate change, one that would impact specific sectors, beside the Indian economy in general. The delegations are expected to engage with policy makers, business representatives, experts, civil society and the media in these five capital cities on the negotiations.

The representatives include Mukund Rajan of Tata Group, Jamshed Godrej from Godrej Group and K Krishnan, co-chair of the Ficci Climate Change Task Force and chairman of the CVC Infrastructure group. Sector experts from CII and Ficci are also expected to be in the teams. The team

for Japan departed on Monday from Delhi, on a three day visit.

The team for Washington, Ficci said, includes Shankar Venkateswaran, chief, sustainability, at Tata Sons; ex-ambassador Ajai Malhotra, a Distinguished Fellow at the The Energy and Resources Institute; and Anshu Bharadwaj, executive director in Bengaluru-based think tank

CSTEP, beside K Krishnan. The business reps and the bodies they represent have requested the government to help facilitate these meetings through the respective Indian embassies. Officials in the government said this would be done.

Ficci said the delegation to Washington DC, which it is supporting, would meet Todd Stern, the US President’s special envoy on climate change, and other senior officials from the department of energy. The delegation would also interact with a range of US-based companies, including First Solar, Aramco, Eaton Corporation and representatives from the American Council on Renewable Energy. Also, meetings with officials from the World Bank and leading think tanks in the US, beside interacting with the media.

While the teams travelling to other capitals are being finalised, Business Standard learnt of some other names on board. These include, Soma Banerjee, in charge of energy & infrastructure at CII; Kirit Parikh, chairman of Integrated Research and Action for Development; Chella Rajan, professor at IIT, Madras; Ardeshir Contractor from Kiran Energy and Karan Mangotra, project manager at the United Nations Development Programme.

On most occasions, India has seen foreign delegations of officials, business representatives and experts visit this country to advocate their interests in the climate change negotiations and the potential Paris agreement. This venture, a first of a kind, Indian business, with experts, would emphasise how they’d like to see the global agreement to shape up by December 11, when the talks end.

One of the organisers at the business chambers Business Standard spoke with said the teams flying to various capitals hoped to explore spaces for cooperation on economic and climate change issues. And, to explain the Indian scenario, which leads to its specific demands and stance at the negotiations.

This endeavour before the 196 countries meet at Paris is expected to be topped-up by the presence of senior officials from corporate houses such as Mahindra & Mahindra in France’s capital at the venue. The chambers have marked their presence earlier, too, at such annual negotiations but their delegations this time are expected to be larger and working more closely with the Government of India.

The latter plans a pavilion at the venue to showcase its ventures and work on climate change. The government has committed to send a separate team, headed by an officer of the rank of joint secretary, to be in charge of the 12 days of activities, side events and meetings at the pavilion. It has also hired a private agency to help in the organisation, while around three dozen officials engage in the main negotiations.

Article Source: Business Standard